COLD CASE
In 2018, cyber expert Arjen Kamphuis mysteriously disappeared in Norway. To this day, the disappearance raises many questions and his story is a source of many theories as to what happened to him.
Is there 'someone' or 'something' behind the disappearance of this WikiLeaks specialist?
The 4-part documentary series is uploaded below and with added English subtitles which I [Scarlet] created. The series will be uploaded in smaller parts, because blogger allows only 100 kB sized video uploads at a time.
Arjen Kamphuis, 47, an expert on cyber security and espionage, an author of 'Information Security for Journalists' and a Wikileaks associate, disappeared on August 20th, 2018 while allegedly kayaking in Norway. His body has never been found. Kamphuis was something of a celebrity in the cyber security world, and well-known among journalists and activists, training them on opsec and providing them with stripped-down devices for secure communications. He is considered an authority on cyber security and espionage. His book 'Information Security for Journalists' is one of the most comprehensive manuals for journalists on how to protect themselves online.
Kamphuis suddenly disappeared on August 20th, 2018. He was last seen checking out of his hotel in Bodø in the north of Norway. Ten days after his disappearance, his cell phone unexpectedly made contact with radio towers in southern Norway, near the town of Vikesa. His phone was active for 20 minutes, after which the SIM card was removed and a German SIM was placed in the device. Three weeks after his disappearance, his kayak, his identity card, and other personal items were found in a fjord near Mount Kvænflåget, north of Rognan. Witnesses reported seeing Kamphuis in Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Norway, but none of these sightings could be confirmed. The police think that one of three things happened to Kamphuis - he was involved in an accident, he fell victim to a crime, or he went into hiding himself. Nearly 4 years later, there is still no sign of the man.
Longer Vimeo video version - part 1
ALL VIDEOS - part 1
VIDEOS - part 2
VIDEOS - part 3
VIDEOS - last part 4
More information and opinions about this case
First of all: I normally write here (extensively) about the disappearance of two other Dutch citizens: Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon. They disappeared in Panama in 2014, and their cold case is even more detailed and baffling in some respects. Looking more freshly at that case now, I can see some minor similarities perhaps with the Kris and Lisanne case. For instance;Bungling foreign host countries - In both cases there is a foreign host country making sure that the case is closed as soon as possible, based on rather far-fetched and unproven claims. The Norwegians drummed up two Eastern European truck drivers to try to cement the holes in the official narrative shut. But nobody else knows who they are, or had a chance to interview them. There is also no real explanation for the sudden use of a German SIM card in Arjen's phone. In the Kris and Lisanne case, Panamanian officials just declared the case an accident, without any hard evidence to support this. They juggled with theories like a fall from a bridge, exhaustion, hypothermia a fall from a cliff and a wild animal attack, and depending on the newspaper she talked to, investigator Betzaida Pittí képt juggling her main scenarios. But without forensic evidence to back it up. In both cases, witnesses also refused to talk.. Some were clearly instructed or threatened to keep their mouths shut.
Strangely behaving phones - In both cases, there is a mobile phone that takes center stage, and turns a seemingly run-of-the-mill accident case upside down. Permanently vigilant cyber secutiry expert Arjen Kamphuis secured his phone better than most of us out there ever will, and yet... his phone was powered on and received two correct PIN codes in a completely different corner of the country, and over a week after he went missing and his kayak was found. Kris and Lisanne's phones also tell a strange story, in the eyes of many. neither pieces of communication technology seem to overlap with what you would expect from accident cases.
Unusual behaviour prior to disappearing - Arjen was vague to his friends and family about where he was going and why. He bought a foldable kayak in the Netherlands, and carried the thing all the way up to Norway. Instead of just renting one locally.. Despite Arjen never before having kayaked, as far as anyone knows. Nor sharing stories about his expensive kayak to friends. He went out in the evening supposedly, kayaking around 9 PM when it was getting dark, and while it was cold and rainy. By himself. Near a secret service intelligence center. Strange behaviour. Kris and Lisanne are claimed to have booked a guided tour the next day, and told their family they were eagerly waiting for news about replacement volunteer work, on the day they went missing. Their teacher had instructed them not to hike this Pianista trail by themselves, and to always go with a guide. Something Lisanne urged other tourists in Bocas to do as well. She was all about planning and safety. And yet... these two girls hiked up that desolate cloud forest trail, by themselves. Dressed in super casual street wear. Barely any normal hiking stuff packed in their bag. But they did bring a rather large sum of cash up the mountain. Even their host mother declared to the newspapers that they had no plans to hike and would certainly not do so, as Lisanne was not feeling super, with a cold or asthma-type of symptoms the previous day. And yet, they went out there. Alone, for all we can tell from their photos.
Other details that don't add up - In Kris and Lisanne's disappearance, their very few remains were for instance found in a place that had been inspected already before by officials. And yet it were locals who found these remains, unsupervised by anyone from Pittí's team. The state of the belongings and the place they were found directly contradict the ravine fall theory, as well as the wild animal theory. None of the items show evidence of a fall from great height. The use of their phones and camera lack any normal signs of panic or a desire to document what happened to them, for their loved ones at home. This is something you see time and time again with people stuck in the wild. The fact that Kris and Lisanne wrote daily in their diaries, makes the total lack of written documentation after disappearing all the more baffling. Not even the sturdy digital camera with plenty of memory space and battery life was used to document their ordeal in a clear and transparent manner. As for Arjen Kamphuis: his indestructible kayak was found with holes and dents in it. But Norwegian police had zero interest in forensically explaining or investigating this. Arjen carried important and secret data on USB sticks around his neck. He did not even take them off while showering. Similar for his laptop and phone, which he carried in a backpack which he almost never took off. But after going missing, the laptop and phone were fished up by anonymous Lithuanian truckers, according to the police. No mention of his important USB keys. But the relatives only ever recieved a plundered, half laptop back, with its hard disk missing.
Also, Peter R. de Vries talked about Arjen's case as well, and Frank van de Goot has now offered to look for a body of Arjen in that fjord soon. (4 years after the fact...).
More details in the news
Sep 24, 2018(TV 2): "Tonight, the police can tell that a mobile phone they connect to the 46-year-old Arjen Kamphuis, sent signals to three different base stations in Rogaland. All along the E39. Åsted Norway can now come out with more new information in the mysterious disappearance case. The signals from Arjen Kamphuis' phone were picked up by a total of three base stations in the Rogaland area on August 30. These are the base stations Ualand, Vikeså and Bråstein. The police say to Åsted Norway that the phone was switched on for about twenty minutes, before a German sim card was then inserted into the mobile.
Comments from people following this case"The whole event surrounding the disappearance of Arjen Kamphuis keeps me thinking. There is so much wrong here. For example, I saw in the NRC newspaper an article, showing that the kayak that was found was not at all unfolded or assembled. But in pictures of the Norwegian police it suddenly was."
"On the day of his disappearance I already noticed that it was strange that he was dragging a foldable canoe bought in the Netherlands along with him. I am only more convinced that therein lies an important clue to his real holiday plans. Because you can make a foldable canoe disappear."
"If someone wants to disappear, it's better to do it in South America and not near a US eavesdropping base where the chance that you are being watched is very high. But the fact that his phone was still switched on and off after his disappearance is proof to me that something has been done to him. After all, Kamphuis knows better than anyone that if you want to disappear, you should definitely not switch on your phone. So if he really wanted to disappear himself, he would have bought an unused phone and unused pre-paid SIM card in advance. He was smart enough for that."
"There are deaths in nature here in Norway about every week, they crash in the mountains, drown in a fjord, they disappear completely, etc. Often foreigners who underestimate Norwegian nature. That in combination with the according to local fishermen's life-threatening current in the Saltdalsfjorden near Rognan. That points to an accident I think, despite that phone ping."
"How do you then explain the powering on and off of his phone? Oh yes, someone of course found the phone after it had been in the seawater for a few days (together with Kamphuis?). Yes, that sounds very plausible."
"Of course, an experienced hiker can also have an accident in the wilderness, but with his background it is certainly possible that Arjen Kamphuis has been made to disappear, in this case by turning over with the canoe and him tragically ending in a Norwegian fjord."
"Of course this calls for speculation. But it seems to me that he would have secured his phone and digital stuff very well. It is possible, but if the FBI can't even hack into an iPhone, this tells me something else is going on. What exactly? No idea. But I wouldn't be terribly surprised if he shows up in Russia. If that phone didn't connect and pinged I'd say: tragic accident or maybe even suicide in the Fjords. Bodø is quite northerly. But he was heading towards Russia's border to Saltdal. Or was taken to that border. But his phone is spotted again in the south, 1600 kilometers south. Very strange story."
"How about the following scenario. Kamphuis is lured to Norway by the Americans, for example by (supposedly) an employee of those US eavesdropping installations, with the story that this employee (à la Snowden) wants to give or sell super secret information (possibly obtained through that eavesdropping). With the intention that this is then passed on to Wikileaks. If Kamphuis accepts this offer, the US immediately have proof that he has ties to Wikileaks and may also have direct contacts with Assange. Which will then be more than enough info for the US to make Kamphuis disappear forever (whether or not in captivity). When Kamphuis subsequently comes to Norway, he is captured by the US for interrogation and is never to be released alive again. Knowing that someone like Kamphuis doesn't just disappear like that, and that doing so will raise all kinds of suspicions against the US, they decide to lead everyone astray. They stage a possible accident with his canoe, and in order to create even more confusion, his phone is also switched on from time to time so that the following 3 scenarios arise for (the police, etc):
1). He could have crashed with his canoe and someone found his phone
2). He himself would have wanted to disappear.
3). Someone made Kamphuis disappear.
Scenario 2) is preferred and further fed with the help of the (social) media, with so-called witness statements who "believe" to have seen him everywhere and nowhere, or to have "seen him get on a boat!" Of course you do the latter as conspicuously as possible if you would like to disappear.... Given all the fog that is surrounding his disappearance, this seems to me the most likely scenario. P.S. I will put on my aluminum hat myself, so no one else has to do that anymore."
"This is a very interesting story. That dude is top of the bill internationally, in terms of cyber security. Experienced hiker and stuff, so I'm going to rule out all normal scenarios for a while. You're left with two. Either he has gone off-grid, but is starting to have doubts, which we see reflected in the renewed cell phone connection that was made. Or some secret service has caught him and is fooling everyone. Wernher von Braun also suddenly appeared on the other side of a large sea. It is also possible that they threw him into a fjord, together with a large block of concrete, by a criminal, but Arjen is too big a fish. There's a lot more going on here, I think."
"He is a male friend of Julian Assange. These men are so awfully smart and know so much, that they probably have to fear for their lives and are therefore forced to go into hiding"
"Someone might have been waiting for him in Norway.
"He just drowned and someone uses their cellphone."
"Yep, fished it from the bottom of that Fjord, at 2 km depth"
"The most logical thing seemed to me to be an accident, until the hassle with that phone came up. Because if someone had found or stolen his phone, it was most likely already used again, or not switched on for a long while."
-"Or you deliberately switch it on at set times, to mess with the heads of those who are looking for you. Suppose you cobble together something that at certain moments switches on the telephone automatically, and then switches it off again. You give the telephone to someone else."
"If it is a conscious action on his part, he mainly proves that the NSA and other security and investigation services are only partially capable. If it was not his choice, I hope they find him quickly."
-"But why this scenario? It is cruel to leave your loved ones in the dark. I think the chance is small."
-"He doesn't even have to have done it himself."
"Very interesting, this...I keep in mind that this man has enough skills to disappear unseen and reappear whenever he sees fit. It's like chess: most people can think 2-3 chess moves ahead. But this is typically one of those rare specimen who could think 8-9 steps ahead (a beta mind). he also included a wrong track for any pursuing sleuths who can only think 5 steps ahead... An accident? Small chance... Because the kayak is a fake trail/red herring. And afterwards, phones don't wander off by themselves. Certainly not if they are fully encrypted. Only possible if someone has his 'key'. To be continued...""If that guy gets pinged, it's because he wants to. Only other possibility is that his phone is in the possession of some Norwegian mountain nitwit. That means he's probably not in good shape."
"The most logical scenario is that he was murdered, robbed and dumped somewhere untraceable."
-"In Norway it is not so bad with robberies, especially because they have a lot of oil money to keep everyone busy with hiking and mountaineering there."
"If you want to disappear from the radar, it is best to set out a wild goose chase. You look for someone with a dual SIM device and unnoticed you put your SIM card in one of the two slots and change the corresponding IMEI code to that of your own telephone (this is a piece of cake for a hacker). If this person calls from the other SIM by default, he/she will not notice anything at first and in the meantime can leave a trace of your phone on the operator network thousands of kilometers away."
"What I can't find anywhere, but what is an important fact: was his mobile phone turned on with HIS SIM card in it, or was it only on with that German SIM card in it? In the first case, it must have been Arjen himself who turned it on, because he is the only one who knows the login code. In the second case someone may have found/stolen the mobile and provided it with a new sim card. Also interesting is whether this new sim card has been seen again since then or not.... And if so, then where else did that new SIM card go and with whom? Who did it belong to?"
"They should just call that German number and ask where the German found that mobile phone. Is that not an option?? And had that German SIM ever been used before? Or after?"
"No, because the phone is now switched off again. Something tells me that it is a prepaid card that was paid for in cash in a German telephone shop without camera surveillance..."
"If they are as smart as the police in the Netherlands they will never find him."
"His phone was very well protected, so you can't just get in there. So it was either A) he himself or B) some secret service."
"Each device, whether a phone, tablet or PC, has a unique device ID. You can't just "flash" it without the OEM or a forensic expert noticing it."
"Everything is copyable, including the IMEI number and the SIM card itself. They are just bytes in a ROM. Or rather, an EPROM. Duplicating is simple. You can even copy your entire smartphone to another, even without knowing the PIN code/Apple or Google ID. They call it image copy. Just ask Achmed from the phone shop where there are surprisingly few customers.""You can't do that without Apple/Google noticing. A little technician encrypts his device. Transferring an image also causes the unique device ID to change, and then they must have cut off his thumb/fingerprint."
"If you have the exact same hardware (or phone) and also from the same series from the factory, then you have a 99% chance that the unique device ID (checksum) is in the range and the Apple/Google or MS (in case of computers ) is not noticeable. An Eprom is nothing more than a chip in which you can store data. With the difference that if you want to erase the data, you have to remove the sticker from the chip and shine it with UV light. , and then cover with a piece of dark tape. After exposure (reset) you can write new data to the Eprom. Seems complicated, but an average 4th grade MTS student also gets this at school. An Eprom can't be hacked from outside, there really has to be physical access."
"There are tools to change the IMEI. It's not that difficult. In an hour you have a real "new" phone."
"If he really turned around in the water, then there will always be a certain smell to this story. It may have all been staged."
"Everyone can sense that something is not right here."
"I'm accepting the police's story of events, but the body not being recovered does leave some massive question mark. And with him being affiliated with Wikileaks and NSA whistleblowers makes it pretty obvious that the CIA wasn't too fond of him. Now, once again: this could all have just been a tragic accident and I'm very much willing to accept that if they find the body and can do a meaningful autopsy. Until then, something about this story rubs me the wrong way. And it has done so since 2018."
